Wicked Game
by SilentlyyScreamingg
Summary: Derek had seen something in him that reminded him of when he was sixteen and still let the pain and fear show in his eyes. He wanted to protect him from that pain and fear, to keep him safe. Derek/Isaac
1. Twenty Years

This is my first attempt at a story multi-chapter story, so I'll attempt to make it worth your while. It's sort of a Derek/Isaac story because the way I see it, they sort of actually make sense as a pairing and there aren't many stories written about them, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

It's basically little snippets of how Isaac came to be a part of Derek's pack and how feelings may have developed. It's pretty much follows the general plot of the show (at least the big events).

All of the titles of chapters will be the names of songs. This one is Twenty Years by Augustana. The overall story is named after Wicked Game by Chris Isaak (but I prefer the cover by Three Days Grace).

**Chapter 1: Twenty Years**

"My life was a wandering; I never had a homeland. It was a matter of being constantly tossed about, without rest; nowhere and never did I find a home."

― Jan Amos Komenský

Derek had finally returned to Beacon Hills, and as for now, he was planned to stay. He had decided it was time to build a pack of his own. He didn't want to be an Omega anymore, he didn't want to have to feel like he was always looking over his shoulder. To put it simply, he was tired of constantly running. He wanted that feeling of pack that he hadn't felt for so long.

The first time he saw Isaac he had seen something in him. Derek had seen something that reminded him of when he was sixteen and still let the pain and fear show in his eyes after what happened to Paige. Of course now it was all buried under the mask of anger he had so carefully constructed. After all, the only way to make it on your own is to bury all your weaknesses and let the rage take hold. Derek had been living in survival mode for such a long time it was all he knew how to do anymore, but Isaac stirred up memories in him. And for a fleeting moment, he felt small and unsure of himself, but he quickly brushed it away. He tried to scoff at the boy's vulnerability, to mock him for what he perceived as weakness, but he couldn't quite bring himself to do it.

Derek simply chose to watch for the time being to see if he had a way in with Isaac. There was no point in asking if he wanted the bite if Isaac was only going to refuse. Derek had first seen him working at the graveyard in the middle of the night, so he decided to look for him at the school. He wasn't hard to find having such a tall frame though he walked with his head down and his shoulders hunched as if he was trying to make himself look smaller. He wore a pair of ratty jeans and a baggy black sweatshirt which hung loosely over his thin chest. Derek couldn't help but notice how afraid he looked even in broad daylight surrounded by people who should be his friends. He kept shooting nervous glancing at everyone as if he was expecting someone to pull out a gun and start shooting or something.

Derek watched him for the entire school day, and he didn't see Isaac talk to a single person. Everyone seemed to leave him alone none of his teachers even asked him to answer a question during class, so it wasn't much of surprise when he sat alone during lunch. It was like everyone had decided it was pointless to engage him because he wouldn't say anything anyway. _Weird, _he mused. _Doesn't this kid have any friends? Does he ever speak? _Derek hung around for Isaac's lacrosse practice, but didn't really pay much attention to it. He found the coach and his damn whistle utterly infuriating. He had to wonder how that maniac managed to keep his job.

Finally, Isaac was headed home, and if Derek was being honest with himself, he was really curious to see where and who Isaac lived with. He knew something must be going on. What kind of sixteen year old kid was that withdrawn from his classmates? Derek thought he looked like a nice enough guy, so he didn't see a reason why the other teens wouldn't talk to him if Isaac wanted them to. That meant that for some reason Isaac _didn't _want them to.

"Isaac!" a harsh voice called, snapping Derek out of his musings once again. "You're late."

"Um…" Isaac stuttered looking around nervously. His voice was soft, but somehow softer than Derek had expected, like he was the kind of guy who would take in a stray kitten and nurse it back to health. Gentle. That was the word. His voice was gentle. "Yeah, Coach made us stay late at practice today."

"What kind of pathetic excuse is that?" A man now stepped into view, and Derek could only assume it was Isaac's father. "You think I'd believe something like that?"

"No, sir," Isaac whispered so low Derek had to strain his ears to hear him. Isaac was staring at the intently at the ground like he was afraid to look his father in the eye.

"You little shit! I've had enough of this attitude of yours! Get in here, NOW!" Isaac's father yelled and suddenly, he was grabbing Isaac's arm and twisting it behind his back so far that Isaac yelped in pain. Isaac's father pushed him up the porch stairs and shoved him into the house where Derek heard him fall with a dull thud. The front door slammed leaving Derek to process what had just happened.

He didn't move a muscle; he didn't even breathe. He could still hear shouting and the sounds of a struggle coming from inside the house, and if he used his wolf hearing he could probably hear what was being said, but he didn't. He almost felt it would be an invasion of Isaac's privacy. Why he would care about his privacy when he didn't even really know Isaac was a question he couldn't answer. But the shouting and the anger and the amount of power that Isaac's father had over Isaac reminded him so much of Kate. It was almost too much. It made him sick. It made him want to scream, to destroy something, to kill her. He had been so naïve. And she had been so charming at first, but then she had been so angry and controlling and then before he knew how to get away from her, his entire family was dead, burned to death. They were dead because of him. That fact was never going to stop hurting him.

With a new burst of rage burning in his gaze to hide all the sadness and guilt, Derek turned from the house. He would go to the graveyard to wait for Isaac's shift to start. If he knew anything about what Isaac was going through, he knew that, more than anything else, Isaac just wanted to feel safe. And giving him this power would give him the protection he was seeking. He would say yes. Derek knew he would. He might be unsure at first, might not agree to it immediately, but as soon as he had to suffer through another beating at the hands of a man who was supposed to love him, he would come back to Derek. He would say yes. And for some reason Derek was reassured by the thought of Isaac being safe soon. He was comforted by the idea of Isaac being protected as he waited in the silent graveyard.

"Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend."

― Wallace Stegner, Angle of Repose

First chapter's not super interesting, but it's kind of necessary. Feel free to tell me it sucks if that's what you think. Sorry for the super long author's note in the beginning. I'll try to avoid that in the future.


	2. Ungodly Hour

So, here's chapter two. The chapter title is named after Ungodly Hour by The Fray. I picked each song for each chapter because I think it fits with that chapter, and I probably listened to the song while writing it, so I guess if you want to listen to it while reading it, you could. This chapter is still fairly early in season two.

**Chapter 2: Ungodly Hour**

"It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone."

– Rose Kennedy

The moon shone brightly in the sky though it was slowly shrinking from being full just a few days earlier. It was a beautiful night. The air was crisp, and the sky was crystal clear, so every star shone brightly in the inky blue. A soft breeze made the leaves on the trees sway just slightly.

Derek stood staring intently at the sky as if it held all the answers he had spent his whole life searching for. It was close to 3 in the morning, and everyone in Beacon Hills should have been asleep, but then again, Derek wasn't like the rest of the people in town. Not to say that being a werewolf had anything to do with why he was outside staring at the sky in the middle of the night.

The truth was Derek hadn't been able to sleep through the night in a long time. A lot of it was nightmares though he'd never confess to them. He'd wake up with the image of Paige, the fire, his family, or Kate burned into the backs of his eyelids so often that he wished he could rip his eyes right out if that meant he would stop being haunted by the sight of them. The rest was more of an uneasy feeling than anything else. He didn't like how vulnerable he felt when he went to go to sleep. He didn't appreciate feeling small and weak after he had spent so many years burying those feelings deep inside himself where he hoped no one would find them.

So instead of sleeping, he reflected on the time that had passed since he'd bitten Isaac. Erica and Boyd had soon followed Isaac in joining the pack, and they all let the sudden rush of power go to their heads. They were cocky, basking in their new strength and ability. _Except Isaac,_ Derek reminded himself. Sure, Isaac acted as cocky as Erica at times which, frankly, was hard to do, but that's all it was, an act. Derek could see he was putting up a façade; he could see the pain that still lay barely hidden beneath the surface of his soft eyes. He was still just trying to protect himself.

And then, there was training. Erica and Boyd had reveled in the rush of drawing blood and breaking bones; they finally had the power to fight back, and they were more than eager to use it. Isaac was different. He hung back. Just as Derek thought the first time he heard him speak, Isaac was gentle; he was kind-hearted and quiet. Fighting just wasn't in his nature. He put on a good front, but when it came down to it, he didn't want to hurt anyone. Derek almost couldn't comprehend it seeing as he had been living on his rage and instinct to fight for the better part of his life. He didn't understand why Isaac didn't hold more anger in himself over what his father had done to him. He yelled at Isaac and even twisted his arm until it broke during training once because that's how he was taught to fight, but it felt wrong. Isaac's eyes had burned into him, filled with betrayal so much so that Derek had to look away.

Isaac was the one member of his pack that he couldn't quite figure out. His father had died shortly after Derek turned Isaac, so he was living with Derek while the other to still had families to go home to. Derek had known Isaac's home life hadn't been ideal; he'd seen Mr. Lahey drag his son into the house screaming himself. But seeing the nightmares Isaac had, Derek had realized what happened in that house must've been worse than he thought. He had decided to go back to Isaac's house to see if it would reveal anything for him and that's when he found the chains and the freezer. He couldn't imagine what Isaac must have felt being locked in that thing; he shuttered at the mere thought. And yet, he couldn't recall a time he'd heard Isaac speak about his father with even the smallest amount of contempt in his voice.

Derek was snapped out of his thoughts by an abrupt cry and a resounding thud. He hurried back into the train car to see Isaac, in some state between sleeping and waking, trying to curl himself into the smallest ball he could manage, his hands held over his head as if he expected someone to strike him.

Derek approached him quietly and deliberately got down to his level. "Isaac? It's Derek."

"No…please." Isaac whispered.

"It's okay. You're safe, Isaac. You here with me?" Derek spoke calmly and gently having done this many times before.

"Derek?" Isaac's eyes finally focused on him.

"Yeah, it's me. You were having another nightmare."

"I'm sorry," Isaac mumbled looking down as he once again curled in on himself. Derek had never been particularly good at being comforting, but in moments like this, Isaac made him desperately want to be. Usually Derek would leave him be at this point. Give him privacy to collect his thoughts and pull himself back together. But something about the way Isaac was still trying to make himself disappear made him want to stay. He wanted to say something that would make a difference to Isaac, but what was he supposed to say?

He eventually slid down the wall until he was sitting next to Isaac, making sure to give him enough room, so he wouldn't feel claustrophobic. "I get them too, you know." Derek had spoken before he meant to. He wasn't sure he had been ready to admit that. Isaac just peered over at him with his deep blue eyes, silently asking him to continue.

"Nightmares, I mean. I'm sure Stiles told you or you've figured it out on your own, but my family…they're all dead. They died in a fire ten years ago. It was my fault, I mean, it is my fault that they were killed…" Derek paused and tried to swallow the lump in his throat. And that's when he felt the gentle touch of a hand against his. He looked down to see Isaac's hand holding his own and then to look at Isaac himself. He had a foreboding amount of understanding in his eyes. All Derek had really told him were the facts, but he knew that Isaac understood what he had left unsaid. Isaac's lips turned upward in a gentle smile, and Derek was shocked to see that it wasn't one of pity, but of acceptance.

"Before my mom died, she loved to bake," Isaac started.

"You don't have to tell me, you know," Derek said quietly, interlocking their fingers as he spoke.

"I want you to know," Isaac replied simply and proceeded to rest his head on Derek's shoulder. Derek stiffened in surprised but soon relaxed when he realized that he didn't mind.

"So, my mom would always let me help her when she was in the kitchen. Sometimes Camden even helped too. It was just fun, you know? My mom was happy, so I was happy. Then, she died, and Camden wouldn't really look at me after that. I guess maybe I reminded him too much of her. And my dad started drinking, and he started hitting me. I thought it would stop, but it only got worse. And I thought Camden would help me, but he pretended it wasn't happening right up until he left for the army, and I never saw him again. That's when my dad…he started locking me in the freezer when he didn't think hitting me was enough of a punishment. He sometimes left me there all night. I just always thought that it was my fault because Camden never tried to help, and I knew the Whittemores could hear what was going on from across the street. No one ever said anything, so it just kind of felt like I deserved it. Maybe it was my fault that my mom died, and that's why I my father did it."

"No," Derek said firmly. "None of that was your fault."

"If none of it was my fault, then your family wasn't your fault," Isaac countered.

"You don't know the whole story," Derek sighed.

"It's still not your fault," Isaac insisted.

"Okay." Derek made to get up to leave Isaac to get back to sleep, but Isaac grasped his hand more firmly.

"Could you stay?" Isaac asked, blushing slightly. "Maybe just until I fall asleep?"

"Okay," Derek simply repeated, settling himself back down next to him. Isaac laid his head against Derek's shoulder once more.

"Thanks," Isaac mumbled.

Derek didn't reply, choosing to squeeze Isaac's hand to let him know he heard him. He closed his eyes and listened to Isaac's heartbeat as it slowed slightly, and his breathing became deeper. Derek could have left, but for reasons he didn't quite understand he wanted to stay. Isaac's presence was oddly comforting, and in that moment, he almost believed what Isaac had said about the fire not being his fault. He wanted to figure out why Isaac was the one person who could do that, but before he really got the chance to consider it, Isaac's warmth and his steady heartbeat lulled him into a sort of half sleep.

Derek managed to untangle himself from Isaac just before he woke. If Isaac had been a werewolf for longer, he probably would've been able to tell that Derek's scent beside him was still fresh. Derek was greatly relieved when Isaac didn't seem to notice. He wasn't sure what he would've said if Isaac had brought it up. But he didn't. Isaac merely murmured one more thank you to Derek as he started the Camaro to drive Isaac to school.

"It's the questions we can't answer that teach us the most. They teach us how to think. If you give a man an answer, all he gains is a little fact. But give him a question and he'll look for his own answers."

― Patrick Rothfuss

So, I hope it turned out okay. The next chapter probably won't be up until Friday at the earliest, but more likely Saturday or Sunday.


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